Turkish Airlines EuroLeague All-Decade forward Georgios Printezis and Olympiacos Piraeus, the team he became a fan of as a boy, will spend their 17th season together after signing a new one-year deal, the club announced Thursday.
Olympiacos keeps club legend Printezis
Euroleague News
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Printezis (2.05 meters, 36 years old) averaged 8.5 points on 61.2% two-point shooting in 31 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague games last season. Before that, he has been a double-digit scorer in the EuroLeague for 10 consecutive seasons with Olympiacos, which he rejoined in 2011 after two years abroad with Unicaja Malaga of Spain. Printezis grew up up in the Olympiacos system and made his EuroLeague debut at age 17 in the opening round of the 2002-03 season. His role grew until Printezis became a nearly full-time starter in 2008-09 as Olympiacos reached its first Final Four of the new century.
Although he left Piraeus for Malaga that summer, the best was yet to come for Printezis and Olympiacos. His return in 2011 foreshadowed a stunning season to come, in which Olympiacos only made the playoffs in a tiebreak but proceeded to shock the world and a CSKA Moscow team that carried a 19-2 record into their championship game. Losing by 19 points with 12 minutes left, Olympiacos mounted a perfect comeback that ended with Printezis scoring the title-winning shot, his patented one-handed floater, with 0.7 seconds left in the season. He and Olympiacos followed that up the next season with just the second repeat EuroLeague title of the last 25 years. They would reach two more title games together, in 2015 and 2017, the latter as Printezis made the All-EuroLeague First Team.
In 2020, Printezis was recently voted by fans, media, his fellow players, and coaches to the All-Decade team after finishing the decade fourth in total performance index rating (2,916) and fifth in both scoring (2,696 points) and rebounds (1,117). He was one of only two players to get at least 2,500 points and 1,000 rebounds in the 2010s. All-time, he ranks fourth in scoring (3,474 points), sixth in rebounds (1,409) and eighth in PIR (3,702). Printezis is the all-time leader in two-point shots made, 1,156, and ranks fifth in games played, 340.